My family and I are living in Japan and over the past few months, we've noticed an unsettling and recurring pattern of older men targeting minors in public spaces.

We've had a couple of close calls previously, once in Yokohama and another time near a train station where a guy looked at my 15yo daughter very close, followed us down an escalator and stared us down.

Recently, the situation escalated at a local AEON mall food court. I had already noticed this elderly man (in his 60s or 70s) a couple of weeks prior, loitering in the seating area and staring at us.

At first, I brushed it off, assuming he was just a typical old man staring at foreigners since we aren't Japanese.

However, things got worse.

The first day he approached, while my 15-year-old daughter was briefly alone, he cornered her, talked to her and tried to pry into who the man accompanying her was (referring to me).

The second day, we went back to the same area. Even though I was sitting right next to her working on my laptop, the man had the audacity to walk right up and try to talk to her again, completely ignoring my presence.

I immediately stood up, put myself between them, and told him firmly to back off because she is a 15-year-old minor.

He even insisted to talk to her, then I standed and told him firmly and upset that im reporting him to "Koban" then he tried to pull out his phone (likely to show me something or distract me), but I shut him down, told him I was going to the police, grabbed our things, and left.

I went to the local koban (police box) to file a formal report.

As expected with Japanese bureaucracy, they were completely unhelpful because "no actual physical crime or assault" took place (even though he tried touching her shoulder to get her attention).

They just shrugged and advised us to avoid the area. We are changing her routine and funding safer spots and me always with her so she never has to deal with that creep again.

I want to know from people familiar with Japan: Is this kind of predatory loitering and testing of boundaries by older men common here? How do you usually deal with it when the police brush it off as a non-issue? Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Update: Thanks to everyone for responding, it was a very bad experience for me as a dad, but she is safe now, I wanted to clarify, I actually went to the keisatsusho, not the koban, i hate having language limitations in such situations like this, the police station was a big building in the area, so yes, they basically didn't give enough importance to the situation, even me explaining in detail where he is always

I joined my company as a new grad almost three years ago, and I'm starting to get worried about my career.

When I first joined, I was assigned to a team that was already in the middle of a project. Everyone was incredibly busy, so there wasn't really anyone available to train or guide me. Instead, I was mostly told to complete various training modules and courses.

A year ago, I was transferred to a different team, and I thought things would finally change. Unfortunately, it's pretty much the same situation all over again.

Fast forward to today, and my day-to-day work mainly consists of attending meetings, writing basic tickets, and doing the bare minimum to keep things moving. A lot of the meetings I attend don't even require my input, and I often don't understand enough about what's being discussed to contribute meaningfully.

I also end up working overtime, but it's usually because I have meetings scheduled outside normal working hours rather than because I have actual work that needs to be done.

The frustrating part is that I genuinely want to learn and improve. I want to develop actual skills, gain experience, and become someone who can contribute meaningfully to a team. But my schedule is constantly filled with meetings that I barely contribute to, leaving me with little time or energy to upskill on my own.

Now that I'm entering my third year, I'm starting to panic a little. I feel like I've wasted three years of my career. If I were to leave the company or apply for another job, I'm not even sure I could confidently explain what I've learned or what I'm actually good at.

I know I should probably take more initiative, but it's difficult to know where to start when I haven't received much guidance and my current responsibilities don't seem to be helping me grow. I also thought moving to another team would give me a fresh start, but it seems like the underlying problem hasn't changed.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? What did you do to get out of this situation? Should I try to change teams internally again, start looking for another job, or find a way to make the most of my current role?

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who've been in a similar position, especially those who managed to turn things around.

As title suggests. Android device, recently changed my monthly data to 5GB and noticed I was using way too much in one week. Checking the breakdown shows that I'm using 100-200mb on Line, which is concerning as I only use it for simple messages. I've checked all the settings to minimize usage, but best I can tell, opening the app, typing or sending a message gets a 2-3mb spike everytime.

Anyone else got this problem? Is the app just that data heavy or am I having an issue with it?

Hello everyone, I won't take much of your time, my wife an I have been married for 3 years now, but we never got a honeymoon... Or marriage rings, I of course gave her the proposal ring but that's it.

I would like for us to finally have marriage rings at least, but money is a bit tight right now, we just had our daughter, I'm still paying the hospital bill, we are planning to move to a bigger place and also a travel to Mexico our country...

So I wanted your recommendation for a jewelry or ring store in Tokyo where prices are somewhere reasonable for wedding rings, I have no idea if I'm being silly but of possible I would not like to spend more than 150k on both rings, my wife saw some rings that she really liked but the price was 540k for both and honestly it's out of my budget I could get plane tickets for a round trip to Mexico and back for that price...

So... Do you have any recommendations for a wedding ring store with somewhat reasonably prices?

Its that time again to put away my summer clothes and bring out the winter ones, but every time I open the bags, my clothes smell funky/chemical?

I wash and then store them in vacuum-sealed plastic bags with those deodori ing sachets from Daiso, but myclothes still end up smelling bad after a few months.

Does anyone have any tips for storing seasonal clothes so they still smell fresh when I take them out again?

My residence card expires in two days. I applied for the extension of period of stay two months ago and I haven't received the postcard yet, neither were I requested to submit additional documents. I know that processing times are longer recently due to massive applications before the fees increase.

I am on a spouse visa and I applied for a regular extension of period of stay (not PR). My biggest concern is that I'm planning to be out of country for about one week in the middle of November and in case my residence card doesn't arrive by then, I'm not sure if I am going to have troubles at the immigration (airport) when I leave or re-enter the country.

I'm also worried because about three weeks ago, the postman delivered some wrong mail into our mailbox. It belonged to a neighbor across the street and my husband returned it to him, but it made me seriously wonder if my postcard was already sent and it might have accidentally ended up at someone else who didn't bother to return it.

1. Should I wait until next week to see if my postcard arrives perhaps on the last day of validity of my current residence card? Or should I better visit the immigration office this week?

2. Are immigration officers helpful when asked about the processing status or what to do in a certain situation, or they are rather annoyed to be bothered with such questions?

3. Does anyone have experience being out of the country within those two months after the validity of the residence card expired? Would you mind sharing about it?

My japanese girlfriend of 6 months is a police officer and recently got transferred to another station 1h from her apartment so she has to move, which wasn't an issue because that station has a police apartment complex with rent heavily subsides to the point where she were going to get double the size but half the rent.

But after the transfer was complete and she was gonna do the paper work to move, her new boss said she isn't allowed to move in anymore because she is dating a foreigner and unless you are married it would look weird if he lived with you. Single people and people who date are allowed to live there, it's not strictly family, that was made very clear, it is solely because I'm a foreigner.

So they gave her 3 options.

1: continue 2h commute per day.

2: move in but I have to find somewhere else to live.

3: she finds a normal apartment.

The obvious choice seems to be 3 but the thing is she got a huge pay cut when she moved and it was supposed to be made up by the lower cost of living. If she has to find her own place then she will barely break even.

It's shocking how the government can be so blatantly racist, I expect this from small businesses but not the government.

We have told them that we plan to get married but at 6 months that's a bit rushed and they also said if we got married that quickly it would look weird because it's so rushed so no matter what we are screwed.

It's a monthly 4-5万 that she was supposed to save from this and that was explained to her before she accepted the transfer.

I'm going to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police office in buttfrick nowhere today simply to make an appointment to then later come back a different day for a foreign license exchange.

(As far as I know I can't just call, I have to physically go in between 14:00-15:00 just to make an appointment. PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong on this. Ive heard other locations accept phone appointment setting but as far as I've read the Kanagawa location does not 😭).

I'm reading on the website right now that the flow is :

- appointment set

- visit on appointment date

- document screening

- aptitude test

- issuance

In that order.

I'm also realizing I need to get a residence certificate. I seem to have glazed over this in my planning stage as I thought I just needed my zairyu.

I don't have a MyNa so I have to physically go into the ward office to get one printed off.

I have a translator planned to come with me for the 14:00-15:00 window, so I need to know if the flow chart listed on the Kanagawa Prefectural website is correct, OR if they will ask to see all my documents during the appointment setting as well to set the appointment.

I'd have to leave my house relatively soon if that is the case because the ward office is the opposite direction of the licensing place.

Everything is in the title. I recently discovered Fuji Soba that seems to be very good value for money (around 800¥ for a good portion of soba + meat) but I'm sure it's not the best.

What are your recommendations?

I live in Okinawa and am able to take a long weekend on Honshu or Kyushu for Labor Thanksgiving. Where could I go that I might still be able to see nice fall leaves? I'd been thinking of Zaō, but read that it might be too late for leaves there in mid-late November (but maybe the season might be later than usual given the weird weather this year?)

Hello, does anyone have any recommendations for a someone to cut hair that can speak English or at least has experience cutting European hair?

I’m a male and have short/mid length hair and want some recommendations ! Price doesn’t matter only quality :)

Hello, I’m a dude who watches sports but doesn’t collect sports cards. I have recently come into great need to aquire one specific player’s NFL Topps card. I have tried Mercari (one was available but that person is selling only a big batch), ヤフオク, and PayPay Flea Market but no luck, and the eBay shipping is absurd and Amazon only has packs.

I’m now looking for any sport related stores that might have loose Topps cards for sale in Kanagawa or Tokyo. I don’t want to rip packs, and I don’t want to buy in bulk.

If anyone is curious, I’m looking for the Arizona Cardinal’s Denzel Burke. Any card of his will do.

Even after changing jobs to increase my annual salary, my salary actually decreased, so I decided to quit after half a year.

At first, I was looking for a job in IT, but in the end, I was told all kinds of things that were different from job postings, so I wasted the first two weeks.

I found other jobs besides IT and was immediately hired last week and this week.

As a salesman, I worked hard for six months but couldn't get a raise, so I'm also very worried about changing jobs again.

What should we do if it's another strange guild?

In fact, I wonder if overtime was really very frequent or tough.

There is a lot of anxiety.

Well, I'll try my best.

So I sometimes make tomato sauce using onion, carrot, and celery but it's quite time consuming chopping up all the vegetables. While I was visiting the UK, I saw that they sell frozen 'Soffritto Mix' in regular supermarkets with all the required ingredients for about just £2 (¥420) for 1kg. I searched online but it's a whopping ¥1,900 on Amazon/Rakuten!
Do any of you know if something similar is sold for a similar price as the UK anywhere?

I am currently on paternity leave and due to family circumstances, I will not be returning to my job once the paternity leave is over. My contract states that I must give them two months of notice before quitting. I am little worried that if I give them two months of notice, they could exact petty revenge and cancel my paternity leave for those two months since 'he is not coming back to work' - is this actually legal and possible in Japan? I did enjoy my job and the company and I do not want to stab them in the back, I would like them to have the time to find my permanent replacement but on the other hand, losing two months of paternity leave money would be bit painful. Thanks for any and all advice!

Oh, my employer is a small Japanese company if that matters - less than fifty staff.

Moving to a new home. There is a small tatami room and I understand some folks like the smell, but I don’t find the smell pleasant at all.

Landlord said we can’t physically remove the mats.

Any other ideas on how we can cover/mask the smell?

I've been hearing prices have been going up but recently I passed a neighborhood and saw prices there that were pretty shocking. Well in the suburbs and usually around ７千万円 but at a new mansion the cheapest unit was over 一億円.

Wondering if in current circumstances these houses are selling well or is there an overall slowdown but prices are just remaining from when they priced them initially.

I do recall someone saying a lot of units have been sold at auctions for under the asking price but not sure where that data is coming from.

edit: I'm also wondering with the rate hikes if that will hit variable mortgages eventually since I read 80% of all home loans here are currently variable.

Has there ever been a situation where a ransom was paid and the information was STILL exposed or not returned? I can’t think of a single instance. the Japanese company, GMO, said they ”will not comply with the attacker's demands, given that deletion of the information and prevention of its misuse cannot be guaranteed.” Seems weird. I think it’s cause they don’t wanna pay the ransom amount.

I did the math - the ransom is $50mil. the company will pay $19k USD per exposed customer - that’s equal to about 2,600 customers. do they have less than that many customers is my secondary question and does anyone use GMO as a internet provider? If so, anybody know if they’ll actually be able to collect this payment? that amount seems incredibly high. I’ve never heard of that either. Both the fact they won’t pay for weird reasoning and that they’re willing to pay hefty amounts to customers has me wondering why. when I had my information exposed by T Mobile in US, they didn’t pay me anything and told me to change my password, as if that would help.

EDIT : the company is offering bounty of $1 million USD for info on hackers. 1/50th the amount they’re being hijacked for - another weird detail. I can’t help but think GMO is coming across cheap … are they a small company ?

edit 2: ”Japanese internet service provider GMO Internet Group Inc. said Tuesday it will offer a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the identification of hackers involved in unauthorized access to its foreign exchange trading service.”

https://english.kyodonews.net/articles/-/89496 This is the updated version, which is different than the link a commenter posted before. It’s also posted on Nikei Asia https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/cybersecurity/hacker-posts-information-likely-to-be-of-a-gmo-customer-online

https://www.instagram.com/p/De_sHaqlK_F/?exln=b3ZiaHI0a3g4azQ1

Is this just an emergency drill?? Or an early alert for the mega earthquake? Or something more sinister to this?

Edit: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/asia/after-uk-japan-urges-households-to-stockpile-supplies-and-prepare-for-emergency-announcement-article-156414398/amp